Tunisia strengthens security after tourist massacre

One thousand additional personnel to boost tourism police, who will now carry arms.

Armed police on horseback patrol the beach near the Imperial Marhaba Hotel on June 28, 2015, in Sousse, Tunisia, two days after 38 people were killed in a terrorist attack at the hotel. Jeff J Mitchell /Getty ImagesShow less

SOUSSE // Tunisia will deploy 1,000 armed officers to reinforce the country’s tourism police from Wednesday, arming them for the first time, the tourism ministry said on Sunday following the massacre of 38 tourists in the coastal resort town of Sousse.

Hundreds of troops and armed police were deployed around Tunisia’s seaside resorts on Sunday, as police on horseback and quad bikes were seen patrolling the beach at Port El Kantaoui where the attack took place on Friday.

In Tunis, the national security council met to discuss what measures should be taken after the attack, which saw at least 15 Britons killed and dealt a heavy blow to the country’s vital tourism industry.

Interior minister Mohamed Najern Gharsalli visited the massacre site at the Imperial Marhaba hotel on Sunday, amid reports that security forces took more than half an hour to get to the scene of the attack which was claimed by ISIL.

Six people remained in “serious condition” in hospital on Sunday two days after the attack, the hotel said.

Security forces were also moving to shut down more than 80 radical mosques, following reports that the gunman Saif Rezgui was indoctrinated by a radical preacher.

A number of protests against terrorism took place around Sousse, a centre of Tunisia’s tourism industry, on Saturday night as thousands of residents poured into the streets, waving flags and tooting car horns.

As they marched along the coastal highway, groups of foreign tourists cheered and clapped.

Tunisians and foreigners also held candlelit vigils that stretched into the early hours of Sunday as they remembered the dead.

Several hundred tourists were flown out on evacuation flights on Sunday, although exact numbers are unclear.

Meanwhile, the victims were recuperating in Sousse hospitals, still trying to come to terms with the horrific slaughter that unfolded on Friday when a gunman mowed down guests as they relaxed on the beach.

Briton Tony Callaghan, recovering from a bullet wound, held up the dented spectacle case he says may have saved his life.

Running for safety through the Marhaba hotel, he was shot at by the gunman, but the bullet deflected off the case inside a beach bag he was holding.

A dent showed where the bullet hit, the impact crushing the steel-framed spectacles inside.

“Except for that I might be dead,” said Mr Callaghan.

The bullet grazed his leg, now covered in a bandage, and he sat in his hospital bed still in the red beach shorts he was wearing during the attack.

Mr Callaghan, retired from Britain’s air force, yelled for crowds of frightened tourists to disperse into rooms instead of clustering together in a hotel corridor as the gunman advanced.

“I was shouting, ‘We’re a sitting target, you have to go in different directions, you can’t stay in a group’,” he said.

In a bed two floors above him at the same hospital, Mr Callaghan’s wife Christine was recovering from a bullet that passed through her thigh, as a red metal frame held her leg together.

“I’ve been doing a lot of crying, I’m just grateful to be here,” she said.

The Callaghans and other tourists praised the hotel staff for their bravery in risking their lives to save those of the guests.

Five Tunisians were reported to be among the dead, with guests saying that as they ran from the gunman at the start of the massacre, Tunisian staff were running the other way, heading to the beach to try and save the tourists.

The Callaghans said that despite their ordeal, they were so moved by the courage of the Marhaba staff that they may return to the hotel again, after having visited it for the past three years.

Tunisian officials are concerned that a much wider negative sentiment will see many more tourists stay away.

Tourism is one of the country’s main economic drivers, and if tourists stay away during the summer peak season, it will be disastrous for the industry.

The attack is also a challenge to the promise of the ruling party, Nidaa Tounes, which swept to power in elections late last year, to bring security to the country.

Four years after democracy was proclaimed following the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the economy remains shaky and terrorism is an ever-present threat.

Nidaa Tounes, with some members from the former Ben Ali regime, had been a constant critic of the former government led by the Islamist Ennahdha movement, who were accused of being weak on security.

Now the new government, led by prime minister Habib Essid, faces the same challenges.

The Marhaba massacre comes three months after the killing of 22 people, mostly tourists, at Tunis’s Bardo museum.

Officials know they must reassure both tourists and their own citizens with decisive action.

* Additional reporting from Agence France-Presse